New EU project to accelerate battery development

The BIGMAP project, which is funded by the European Union (EU), aims to significantly accelerate the speed at which new battery types can be developed - with a particular focus on sustainability. The Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) and the University of Ulm are participating in the project via the CELEST research platform. At the same time, the project is strengthening research activities in the joint POLiS Cluster of Excellence.

In order to achieve the climate neutrality target set by the EU and Germany by 2050, greenhouse gas emissions from road traffic, among other things, must be drastically reduced. The consistent expansion of electromobility should make a significant contribution to this, although this requires more cost-effective and sustainable alternatives to existing batteries. "This is a huge challenge, as the development of new batteries takes a long time using current methods. In the BIG-MAP project, we want to make decisive progress in this area," says Professor Maximilian Fichtner, scientific spokesperson for CELEST and POLiS and Deputy Director at the Helmholtz Institute Ulm (HIU), which KIT founded together with the University of Ulm. The EU project BIGMAP (BIG stands for Battery Interface Genome; MAP for Materials Acceleration Platform) aims to establish completely new methods and thus significantly accelerate battery development - among other things through consistent automation and the use of artificial intelligence (AI). In the future, sustainable and ultra-high-performance batteries are to be developed up to ten times faster than before using the methods established in BIGMAP. "However, the vision is not only to be able to develop new batteries much faster, but also to ensure that they can store energy efficiently, that they can be produced sustainably and at such low costs that it will be even more attractive in future to store electricity from solar and wind power, for example, in batteries," says Fichtner. "A reorientation of the existing discovery, development and manufacturing processes for battery materials and technologies is necessary so that Europe can take on its main competitors in the USA and Asia."

The budget for BIG-MAP amounts to 16 million euros and 34 institutions from 15 countries are involved. With the three professors Maximilian Fichtner, Wolfgang Wenzel and Helge Stein, KIT is the largest recipient of funding after the coordinating Technical University of Denmark (DTU). Accordingly, the Cluster of Excellence Post-Lithium Storage (POLiS), which is operated by KIT in cooperation with the University of Ulm, the Center for Solar Energy and Hydrogen Research Baden-Württemberg (ZSW) and the University of Giessen, will also play an important role in the development of the new methods. BIG-MAP will initially run for three years, with the option of an extension for a further seven years. It is the largest single research project of the European research initiative for batteries, BATTERY 2030+.

"In BATTERY 2030+ and BIG-MAP, we need to reinvent the way we invent batteries. Last year, the Nobel Prize for Chemistry went to the inventors of the lithium-ion battery. A fantastic invention, but it took 20 years from idea to product - we need to be able to do it in a tenth of that time if we want to provide sustainable batteries for the energy transition," says Tejs Vegge, professor at DTU and head of BIG-MAP.

AI and robots accelerate battery development

BIG-MAP aims to create a common European data infrastructure that enables data from all areas of the battery development cycle to be collected autonomously, processed and used in collaborative workflows. Physical access to the differently equipped test facilities will then hardly be necessary for the BIG-MAP researchers and they will be able to work together across national borders and time zones. Experiments and synthesis orchestrated by AI will utilize large amounts of collected data with a focus on battery materials, interfaces and intermediate phases. Data will be generated from computer simulations, autonomous high-throughput material synthesis and characterization, in operando experiments and device-level testing. Novel AI-based tools and models will use the data to "learn" the interplay between battery materials and interfaces, providing the basis for improving future battery materials, interfaces and cells.

"We will be able to explore the complex chemical space with the help of autonomously acting robots at unprecedented speed and quality. Our understanding will be supported by a central artificial intelligence," explains Professor Helge Stein (HIU and POLiS), whose research group is in charge of developing the AI required for accelerated material discovery and will be distributed across the European continent.